Apologies if this is already on here. I did read through the whole thread and don't remember seeing this.

If you are getting stone bench tops any thicker than 20mm ask for a mitred edge if you want to avoid the horizintal line around the edge of the bench. Have it written into the contract. Our builder didn't charge us any extra to do this.

Knew I didnt explain it very well sorry CrazyK. I mean in terms of how they join the stone to give the 40mm look. Here is a link to a picture that might explain it better, but perhaps someone with more knowledge on this subject would be kind enough to give some more info?http://vic-stonenglass.com.au/wp-conten ... iles-1.png

Wow have spent the last few days reading through the entire thread! Well done everyone who has contributed so far.

I thought I had a fairly comprehensive list - boy was I wrong!

We are only approaching pre-start but the one thing I have had suggested to me - that I haven't seen on here so far - is to make sure that if you have boosted HWS, make sure the booster button is inside the house. If it's outside you coould have a chilly/wet trip to put it on!

I built with redink ink .im sure its a automatic booster . But I upgraded to gas boosted . I did ring the company and they did say it was . So im guessing its not like the old days when you had to turn it off and on . But you got me thinking .I might just call them again .

We are only approaching pre-start but the one thing I have had suggested to me - that I haven't seen on here so far - is to make sure that if you have boosted HWS, make sure the booster button is inside the house. If it's outside you coould have a chilly/wet trip to put it on!

On a similar topic, if you have electric boosted Solar Hot Water, particulary the more efficient Evacuated Tube type, then consider a 24hr/7day timer in your circuit breaker box.

That way you can automatically set up the times and days when you want the water to be electrically boosted.

In our old place, and it will happen in my new build, we had ET SHW, and set the timer to electrically boost at around 4pm every second day for an hour. If the water was at full temperature in the tank, it used no electricity, but if they days were overcast or a lot of hot water was being used, then it would boost it then.

We also had the timer set to boost for an hour at around 6am on our big washing days, so we had plenty of hot water.

Of course you will still get several days of no decent heating sun, but these timers also allow you to turn things on manually, you just had to remember to turn it back to timer mode afterwards.

Another good reason to have your circuit breaker board mounted inside the garage behind your meter box that has to be on the outside wall.

What's this? You have to manually turn on the booster? Ours is fully automatic gas boosted, if it's not hot enough then The gas kicks in itself

Gas boosting is different, as it only boosts the hot water if the water drops below the set temperature, but with electric boosted SHW, as the water mixes it can start the boost process, even though there is plenty of sun.

It's not so much we forgot - we didn't know anything about tile mitring and the interior designer we met with to help make selections (service offered by builder) didn't mention it, tile shop didn't mention it, pre-start girl didn't mention it and now we are almost finished build and seen our tiles aren't mitred and have horrible terracotta coloured edge!! This goes around nib wall in ensuite and is very noticeble! If we had been told this was something we had to specifically ask for we would have! Make sure you specify this!! Haven't asked our builder bout it yet but we are very disappointed it wasn't discussed as optional , they knew we were first time builders.

This is an awesome list and will be very useful in the coming months. We are about to start building and I had a thought...do you think it would be wise to install the freestanding wood heater before the ceiling and colourbond roof goes on?